Notes of support on Amber Timmons’ car after it was vandalized with hateful messages. (Ashley Dean/Denverite)

“Like I said on the back, love trumps hate,” she said. “You don’t fight hate with hate. You fight it with love.”

She moved to the Cheesman Park neighborhood from Capitol Hill because she thought the area would be more welcoming to her as a trans woman.

“I try to tell people that because of the Trump thing, it’s all coming back,” she said. “It’s coming back hard.”

Graffiti on the hood of Amber Timmons’ car. (Ashley Dean/Denverite)

Denver police were at the scene this morning to investigate.

Update: Earlier this morning, we reported that the Black Lives Matter banner on the First Unitarian Society of Denver building had been vandalized for a third time. However, the church later informed us that there was no new vandalism. Rather, an effort to clean paint off the stone temporarily made the previous vandalism look worse.

When the sign and church were hit with paint the second time, on Nov. 2 this year, it was left up as a reminder that there is still a fight against racism. The first time it was vandalized was a year earlier, and that was cleaned up.

Glenn Barrows, congregational administrator at First Unitarian Society of Denver and designer of the Black Lives Matter Banner, said the beginnings of the cleanup process have indeed made it look like it was vandalized again, but it will soon be clean.

“The reason that we have pursued cleanup is now that we are a historic landmark, a lot of the exterior of the building is guided by regulations,” he said.

The church received its historic landmark designation in August of this year.

No one has ordered the church to clean up the paint, but Barrows said the building renovation team decided that leaving it on the stone wall throughout the winter would do more damage.

Barrows also said that they’re preparing to add a new banner alongside the Black Lives Matter banner. They’re still trying to decide between of handful of ideas for the message, but he said it will be “huge and defiant.”

Since he created the original banner for the First Unitarian Society of Denver, 30 churches around the country have adopted the design for their own signage.

The historic landmark designation could eventually require that the banners be taken off the exterior wall, but Barrows said they will find another prominent and permanent place to display them.

Barrows did not learn about Timmons’ vandalized car until he spoke with Denverite.

“We live in difficult times,” he said. “It’s our position at First Unitarian, has been for decades — we are an island of sanity in a somewhat insane world and we are here for anyone who is marginalized. It’s not just about the congregation, it’s about the community and about the world.”

“We will be here. We aren’t going anywhere. We will be here forever. Because we need to be.”

“It does shock me,” she said of the hate crime in her district. “The district overwhelmingly supported me in my race … and I will be the first African-American LGBT person to ever hold elected office in Colorado. Considering this community came out so strongly for me, knowing all my identities, it’s heartbreaking.

“Unfortunately this is not new for us, it’s just becoming more visible,” she added. “We all to some extent wake up with fear that we could be discriminated against, that we could be attacked for who were are … We know that that’s real, but that doesn’t keep it from hurting every time it happens.”

On Nov. 29, Herod will co-host a town hall meeting with District Attorney-elect Beth McCann to discuss “how we can support our neighbors in this new era” and possible legislation to address the issues.

The list of speakers hasn’t been finalized yet, but it will include representatives from the Colorado Division of Civil Rights, the ACLU, One Colorado and Colorado House Democratic leader Crisanta Duran. The meeting will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at St. Luke’s Presbyterian, 1719 E. 19th Ave.

Herod also said that the Black Democratic Legislative Caucus is working with Denver police on a “pretty aggressive agenda” to improve people’s trust in the department. Part of that involves sharing more data on profiling.

People have already reached out to offer support and assistance to Timmons, and that showing reaffirms Herod’s faith in the community.

“Our neighbors will come together and reject the vandalism and hate we’re seeing in our communities. This is a place where we don’t tolerate discrimination in any form, and we won’t,” she said. “While I’m really concerned, I know that we’re going to pull together.”

Author: Ashley Dean

Ashley Dean covers dining and nightlife, and other odds and ends. She previously covered music and did some copy editing for the Denver Post, the Colorado Daily and the Daily Camera. She's from New York, likes her bourbon straight and has strong opinions about Kanye West. She can be reached at adean@denverite.com, 303-502-2804 or @AshleyDean. View all posts by Ashley Dean